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La specialista ha studiato il problema.

La specialista ha studiato il problema.
The specialist studied the problem.
From Lesson 245:Nouns ending in -ista (-ista, -isti, -iste)·Italian

Breakdown of La specialista ha studiato il problema.

avere
to have
il problema
problem
studiare
to study
lo specialista
specialist

Questions & Answers about La specialista ha studiato il problema.

How do we know the specialist is a woman if the noun ends in -ista?
Words ending in -ista are invariable in the singular, meaning the noun itself is exactly the same for a man or a woman. You have to look at the article to know the gender. Here, the feminine article La tells us the specialist is a woman. If it were a man, it would be Lo specialista.
Why is it il problema instead of la problema? Doesn't -a usually mean a word is feminine?
Most Italian words ending in -a are feminine, but problema is a masculine exception. Words of Greek origin that end in -ma (like il programma, il sistema, and il clima) are almost always masculine, so they take masculine articles like il.
Why doesn't the past participle studiato change to studiata to match the feminine subject?
Because the helping verb is avere (ha). In the past tense, verbs that use avere do not change their past participle ending to match the subject. It always ends in -o. The ending only changes to match the subject if the helping verb is essere.
How would you change this sentence to plural: The female specialists studied the problems?
It would be Le specialiste hanno studiato i problemi. For words ending in -ista, the feminine plural ends in -e (le specialiste), while a masculine or mixed plural ends in -i (gli specialisti). Meanwhile, the masculine noun il problema follows the regular rule for masculine plurals and changes to i problemi.

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